he professed to ridicule and despise, but to whom he had caused assurances
of sympathy to be conveyed.

During the first period of the war, and especially during the siege, Cecil
Rhodes was in Kimberley. He had gone with the secret hope that he might be
able from that centre to retain a stronger hold on South African politics
than could have been the case at Groote Schuur, in which region the only
authority recognised by English and Dutch alike was that of Sir Alfred
Milner. He waited for a sign telling him that his ambition was about to be
realised in some way or other--and waited in vain. It is indisputable that
whilst he was shut up in the Diamond City Rhodes entered into secret
negotiations with some of the Dutch leaders. This, though it might have
been construed in the sense of treason against his own Motherland had it
reached the knowledge of the extreme Jingo party, was in reality the
sincere effort of a true patriot to put an end to a struggle which was
threatening to destroy the prosperity of a country for which he had
laboured for so many years.

In judging Rhodes one must not forget that though a leading personality in
South Africa, and the chairman of a corporation which practically ruled
the whole of the Cape Colony and, in part, also the Transvaal, he was,
after all, at that time nothing but a private individual. He had the right
to put his personal influence at the service of the State and of his
country if he considered that by so doing he could bring to an end a war
which threatened to bring destruction on a land that was just beginning to
progress toward civilisation. It must be remembered that his was the only
great personality in South Africa capable of opposing President Kruger and
the other Dutch and Boer leaders. He was still popular among many
people--feared by some, worshipped by others. He could rally round him
many elements that would never coalesce with either Dutch or English